Fox Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle
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The FV721 Fox
Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Wheeled) The Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle (Wheeled), abbreviated to CVR(W), was a line of vehicles to replace the Ferret Armoured Car in British Army service. Two variants were planned: *Fox armoured reconnaissance vehicle, Fox (FV721) – fitted wi ...
(CVR(W)) was a 4 × 4 armoured car manufactured by
ROF Leeds Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) Leeds, first opened as a munitions factory in December 1915 and opened as an ROF in January 1936, was one of a number of Royal Ordnance Factories created at the start of the Second World War. Early site history and pr ...
, deployed by the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
as a replacement for the
Ferret The ferret (''Mustela furo'') is a small, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (''Mustela putorius''), as evidenced by the ferret's ability to inter ...
scout car and the
Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...
armoured car. The Fox was introduced into service with B Squadron, 1st Royal Tank Regiment (
Aliwal Barracks Aliwal may refer to: *Aliwal, Taran Taran, a village in the Indian state of Punjab *Aliwal, Jalandhar, a village in the Indian state of Punjab * Battle of Aliwal fought in 1846 between the British and the Sikhs * Aliwal North Maletswai (previo ...
, Tidworth) in 1975 and withdrawn from service 1993–94. Development of the Fox began in 1965 and the following year the Daimler company of Coventry, which was building the Ferret scout car at the time, was awarded a contract to build 15 prototype vehicles. The first was completed in November 1967 and the last in April 1969. User trials began in 1968 and the first official announcement concerning the Fox was made in October 1969. The following year the Fox was accepted for service with the British Army and a production order was placed with Royal Ordnance Leeds. Production began in 1972 and the first vehicle was completed in May 1973. Production of the Fox has been completed at Royal Ordnance Leeds.


Description

It had a crew of three and had a low profile rotating
turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...
armed with a 30 mm L21
RARDEN The L21A1 RARDEN ("Royal Armament, Research and Development Establishment" and "Enfield") is a British 30 mm autocannon used as a combat vehicle weapon. The Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment (RARDE) and the Royal Small Ar ...
cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...
, which was manually fed with three-round clips; 99 rounds were carried. A
coaxial In geometry, coaxial means that several three-dimensional linear or planar forms share a common axis. The two-dimensional analog is ''concentric''. Common examples: A coaxial cable has a wire conductor in the centre (D), a circumferential ou ...
L37A2 7.62 mm machine gun was mounted with 2,600 rounds. The weapons were not stabilised. This turret was also equipped with a set of two 4-barrelled smoke dischargers. The vehicle had a combat weight of 6.75 tonnes and was designed to be air-portable. The Fox had
aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
armour Armour (Commonwealth English) or armor (American English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, e ...
and was fitted with a flotation screen. It lacked protection against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Powered by a
Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...
4.2-litre 6-cylinder petrol engine, the Fox was one of the fastest vehicles of its type. The all-welded aluminium armour hull and turret protected against small arms fire and artillery splinters but not from heavy (.50 calibre) machine gun fire. The driver sat at the front and had an integral periscope/hatch cover that lifted and opened to the right. The centre mounted turret held the commander-loader on the left and gunner on the right. They each had a rear-opening hatch cover. Without preparation, the Fox can ford one metre of water and a flotation screen can be erected in two minutes. Drive when floating was solely from the road wheels, giving poor performance and the screens were removed from most UK vehicles early in their service life. Air portable, three Foxes can be carried by one C-130 Hercules aircraft, two of which can be parachute dropped. The Fox was principally used by the
Royal Yeomanry The Royal Yeomanry (RY) is the senior reserve cavalry regiment of the British Army. Equipped with Supacat Jackal variants, their role is to conduct mounted and dismounted formation reconnaissance. The Regimental Headquarters is located in Leice ...
and the
Queen's Own Yeomanry The Queen's Own Yeomanry (QOY) is a reserve light cavalry reconnaissance regiment of the British Army. The regiment is part of the 19th Brigade, which was reactivated in 2022. The regimental headquarters is at Fenham Barracks, Newcastle, with sq ...
, the brigade reconnaissance regiments in 2 Div, BAOR's rear area formation. Small numbers were also attached to air mobile, armoured and mechanized infantry battalions to form a reconnaissance platoon.


Variants

* FV722 Vixen - Un-turreted version, was planned and tested but never entered production. An example of the Vixen is held at the
Bovington Bovington Camp () is a British Army military base in Dorset, South West England. Together with Lulworth Camp it forms part of Bovington Garrison. The garrison is home to The Armour Centre and contains two barracks complexes and two forest and ...
museum. Hull #2, after spending about two decades mounted on a plinth as a gate guard at the
Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment The Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment (MVEE) was a British defence research unit on Chobham Lane, Chertsey in Surrey. It was responsible for many innovations in armoured vehicle design, including ceramic Chobham armour. History ...
,
Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, southwest of central London. It grew up around Chertsey Abbey, founded in AD 666 by Earconwald, St Erkenwald, and gained a municipal charter, market charter from Henry I of Engla ...
was recovered, exported and restored to mechanically operational condition in Australia. * Polecat - There was at least one trial version of a Fox chassis mounting the standard UK
GPMG A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles for light and medium machine guns. A GPMG typically features a quick-change barrel design calibered for ...
one-man turret (as used on the
FV432 The FV432 is the armoured personnel carrier variant in the British Army's FV430 series of armoured fighting vehicles. Since its introduction in the 1960s, it has been the most common variant, being used for transporting infantry on the battlefie ...
APC) and possibly one with a larger one-man turret mounting an M2 .5in heavy MG. Both types were proposed for use in Northern Ireland during the 1980s as patrol vehicles. * Panga - Export version for Malaysia, fitted with Helio FVT-800 machine gun turret. Prototype only. * Fox-Scout - Escort version with 7.62 mm machine gun (
MAG Mag, MAG, Mags or mags may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''MAG'' (video game), released in 2010 * ''Mág'' (film), a 1988 Czech film * ''Mag'' (Slovenian magazine), published from 1995 to 2010 * '' The Mag'', a British music magazin ...
or
Chain gun A chain gun is a type of autocannon or machine gun that uses an external source of power to cycle the weapon's action via a continuous loop of chain, similar to that used on a motorcycle or bicycle, instead of diverting excess energy from the ...
) and 4,500 rounds. Prototype only. * Fox 25 - Fitted with a 25 mm Chain Gun in a Sharpshooter turret. Crew: 2. Prototype only. * Fox MILAN - Tankhunter version with
MILAN Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
Compact Turret. Prototype only. *
Sabre A sabre or saber ( ) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the Early Modern warfare, early modern and Napoleonic period, Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such a ...
- The turret of the Fox was remounted on the chassis of an
FV101 Scorpion The FV101 Scorpion is a British armoured reconnaissance vehicle and light tank. It was the lead vehicle and the fire support type in the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked), CVR(T), family of seven armoured vehicles. Manufactured by Alvis, ...
hull to create a new tracked reconnaissance vehicle, the
Sabre A sabre or saber ( ) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the Early Modern warfare, early modern and Napoleonic period, Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such a ...
. Cheaper to produce than the similar
FV107 Scimitar The FV107 Scimitar is an armoured tracked military reconnaissance vehicle (sometimes classed as a light tank) formerly used by the British Army, until it was retired from active service in April 2023. It was manufactured by Alvis in Coventry. ...
, 136 Sabres were created. Modifications included redesigning the smoke grenade dischargers, replacing the standard machine gun with a
L94A1 chain gun L94A1 is the British Ministry of Defence designation for the long-barrelled version of the Hughes EX-34 7.62 mm chain gun, which is fitted to several British Army armoured fighting vehicles, including the Challenger 2 and the Warrior. A second ve ...
and domed hatches to improve the headroom for the commander and gunner. They were assigned to the reconnaissance platoons of armoured and
mechanised infantry Mechanized infantry are infantry units equipped with Armoured personnel carrier, armored personnel carriers (APCs) or infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for transport and combat (see also armoured corps). As defined by the United States Army, me ...
battalions, before being withdrawn from service in 2004. * FV432/30 - A small number of Fox turrets were added to modified
FV 432 The FV432 is the armoured personnel carrier variant in the British Army's FV430 series of armoured fighting vehicles. Since its introduction in the 1960s, it has been the most common variant, being used for transporting infantry on the battlefie ...
s in the mid-1970s for the
Berlin Infantry Brigade The Berlin Infantry Brigade was a British Army brigade-sized garrison based in West Berlin during the Cold War. After the end of World War II, under the conditions of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements, the Allied forces occupied West Berlin. This o ...
but this project was abandoned after 13 were converted.


Operators


Current operators

* - 20 purchased and received from United Kingdom in 1981. All operational as of 2024. * - 50 operational as of 2024. 55 purchased from the United Kingdom in 1975.


Former operators

* - 200 (withdrawn)


References


Sources

*https://www.forecastinternational.com/archive/disp_old_pdf.cfm?ARC_ID=1137 * Jane's Armour and Artillery 1993–1994, Jane's Information Group, * Taschenbuch der Panzer Edition 7 (1990), Bernard & Graefe Verlag, * Terry Gander, The Modern British Army (1988), Patrick Stephens Limited, * Terry Gander, Britain's Modern Army (1995), Patrick Stephens Limited,


External links


Fox at Inetres.com
* {{Modern Recce Armoured cars of the Cold War Armoured cars of the United Kingdom Wheeled amphibious armoured fighting vehicles Cold War armoured fighting vehicles of the United Kingdom Reconnaissance vehicles of the United Kingdom Military vehicles introduced in the 1970s Reconnaissance vehicles of the Cold War